State Grabs Money Meant For Quitting Smoking

EDITORIAL

Tobacco Addiction: Connecticut's government is as venal as the tobacco companies

April 30, 2012

When it comes to tobacco addiction, Connecticut's state government has been nearly as exploitative and venal as the tobacco companies it went after more than a dozen years ago.

The state led the nation in suing Big Tobacco, with then-Attorney General Richard Blumenthal demanding compensation for the high cost of Medicaid patients who are prone to smoke. The idea was that tobacco companies would give states money to care for the ill — and prevent others from becoming addicted.

The argument won the day. Connecticut and 45 other states won billions of dollars in 1998 as part of the historic tobacco settlement. But hypocrisy soon followed.

This income stream of $100 million-plus annually will end in 11 more years. It has become little more than a slush fund to pay for practically everything but quitting smoking. That has to stop. We must spend significantly more to reduce tobacco addition or the habit will end up costing in other ways.

The only bright spot is that — finally — Connecticut has begun to cover smoking-cessation services for more people on Medicaid — the health insurance for low-income people. Despite the fact that more than one-third of Medicaid recipients smoke, until this year our state was one of only five in the nation that didn't provide help so that low-income people could kick the habit, which would save taxpayers millions in health care costs.

In several different analyses, Connecticut had been listed as one of the very worst states in the country when it comes to spending on helping people kick the habit. This state frequently spends less than $1 million a year to help people stop. Last year, Connecticut spent zero. Between 2000 and 2009, according to an excellent Yankee Institute study (bit.ly/tobaccoct), of the $1.3 billion sent to Connecticut from the settlement, only $134 million went to the Tobacco and Health Trust Fund. But it gets even worse: The state government raided that "trust fund" of all but $9.2 million for other goals.

Mr. Blumenthal, now U.S. senator, says, "We should be embarrassed and ashamed that one of the nation's leading states in public health is failing to use the money to help people quit. "

In fiscal 2013 alone, the state will get $119 million from the tobacco settlement. The Centers for Disease Control says Connecticut should be spending more than $40 million on smoking cessation. We're not even close. It's time to help people quit smoking — the purpose for which the money was awarded in the first place.